Saturday:
Off the boat and into the galaxy!
I'm going to be a little vague about plot points of the interactive elements, as I think it is most fun to be surprised by how some of it develops. Though, of course, any adult familiar enough with this franchise to want to spend a vacation here surely knows enough about story arc and character to predict most of how it plays out -- but it's still done quite well.
We had to be at breakfast at 7:10am, so we were up early and watched another ship docking before saying final goodbyes to our cabin and heading to breakfast. From there we went straight to waiting in the atrium, and were allowed off the boat around 8. We had paid for
DCL transfers, and had spent an unreasonable amount of time trying to figure out what that would mean for us. The busses from Port Canavarel leave at 9am, and drop passengers off at WDW. It seemed bizarre to us that they couldn't just drop us at GS. Our
travel agent kept being told the bus would take us to Art of Animation, and she kept saying that wasn't good enough - what would happen with our luggage, etc. I had posted about this question on these boards, and no one really knew what would happen.
Ultimately, we asked on the ship and they said the official word from Disney was to take us to Art of Animation, but we should just "ask the bus driver".
So we decided to do that - but there was some anxiety about what would happen with our luggage while we waited until we could uber to GS. We had a lunch reservation for 1145 in DS, but weren't exactly excited about it, it just seemed like as good a way as any to use the time.
So when we got to the bus around 815, the bus driver and dispatch folks were a little baffled about what to do with us "The new Star Cruiser? Oh, yeah, I know where that is. Says here to take them to Art of Animation" "We can't take them there! they can't walk! they have luggage" "well, gee, what do you think" etc. Finally the bus driver said "I'll take them - and we'll have a little adventure in space if I have to, but I'll do it after the other resorts so we aren't bothering other folks"
The bus left right at 9am. We started dropping people at other resorts around 1015, and finally got to Galactic Star Cruiser at 10:55. We pulled up to the security gate and waited. The guard came on boad and got our names, and then said we couldn't come in until 11. The bus driver said "so, can I just ... wait here for 3 minutes?" and the guard talked on his walkie-talkie and then said we had to come back at 11:15. There was one more group on the bus still, going to the Swan, so the bus driver drove around the GS (we all were delighted to drive around the back), back to the Swan, and then back to GS and finally dropped us off at 11:22. By that point we'd been sitting on the bus for over 3 hours. We were swarmed by CMs who knew our names and had our mbands ready and waiting. They took our luggage and hustled us quickly to the DS bus line. We asked if J could use the bathroom and they seemed almost sad when they sad she couldn't.
The bus came quickly, we took it with one other family, had an uneventful (but overpriced) lunch, and were back on the bus and back to GS a little after 130pm. It was, of course, much more crowded then! There were swarms of people, and we had to line up in a small hallway. When we scanned our mbands, P's didn't work, so they had to go get him a new one (without his name on the back), and between the hours on the bus, the trip to disney springs, the crowds, the delay, and the general exhaustion, the line and the hallway started to feel very tight. But, it really didn't take all that long.
The immersive feeling kicked in right away. We appreciated the entry safety video drawing a distinction between red-alert lights (for immersive emergencies) and white alert lights (for real ones). We boarded the "transport pod" which really got us excited -- J was genuinely confused about whether it was an elevator or not.
Our first glance at the lobby was almost overwhelming. It really felt like we were in a completely different world, without being disquieting. We decided to go check out our room and then get datapads for the kids and explore. At this point despite the crowds at check in, it still felt empty in the atrium, and there were more blue shirted employees than guests.
We were in room 1426. The kids immediately chose bunks, turned on the window, scrolled through the tv welcome videos, and talked to the room droid. I unpacked a little (mostly finding places to stash the suitcases of cruise stuff we wouldn't need!) and then some of us changed into costumes (two jedi, jyn erso, and a pratorian guard) and went out to explore. I went to guest services and was issued two "datapads" (Iphones) for the kids. I asked the guest services staff how to set them up and he said "just sign in with your account" and I said "for both kids? even though I'm signed in on my account on my phone?" and he said "yes" and I said "are you sure?" and he said "yes, I'm sure".
So, before you get any further -- he was wrong. We'll learn that later, but you can learn it now.
I then handed the phones off to the kids, and we continued exploring. D went to the shop, P taught himself sabacc in the cantina and started playing, and J started trying to do quests on the datapad. We went back to the room after a bit for snacks (later, there would be snacks out in the atrium, but never at a time when my kids were hungry that wouldn't also ruin dinner -- they put them out at 4pm, and we had 530 dinner). We talked to the room droid again, and did some negotiations on her behalf, which was fun. It was almost time for the "muster drill" so we headed back to the atrium. It started to seem like maybe the datapads weren't working correctly - mine wasn't working at all, and J's seemed to have already done something she hadn't done yet. But D's was working, and he was quickly accepting quests and off and running.
The muster drill of course introduces many of the main characters and the major plot points. A couple cast members talked to us specifically as we were waiting, and helped set things up for us in a really nice way. It was extremely well done overall - the characters were clear and specific, and the storylines were clear.
We had lightsaber training right after the muster drill, but I thought maybe I could get the datapads fixed - however, the guest services staff urged me to go to lightsaber training first, as they would not let us in late.
lightsaber training was fantastic. J was picked to be the first /demo student, which made her happy (and was reflected in her later interactions with the person leading lightsaber training, via datapad comms). The experience was well beyond our expectations.
After that, I went to guest services, and had to wait in a line, and meanwhile both kids were frantically asking why they couldn't do any cool quests while their dad was off already running missions. They were annoyed, which made me annoyed, etc. By the time I got to a person, I was ....not my best self. I hope I remained polite? I am sure I sounded annoyed and somewhat entitled as I explained the issue, including the earlier staff member's assurance that it would work. The woman helping me was very nice, but it took a really long time - I had to make accounts for the kids, then link them to my account, and this sounds easy, but there was 2 step verification 4 separate times (2x per kid) and twice it messed up, and once I had to reset my entire disney.com password. Then it finally totally worked for the kids, and I handed off their datapads and they ran off to do quests before dinner...but it still didn't work on my phone. I was upgraded to a supervisor, who said I should just use one of their phones as well. I was at this point VERY glad to have chosen a (DIY) Jyn Erso costume, as my vest had many pockets for the many phones I was now carrying!
By then it was dinner time - we had the 530 seating. The food was surprisingly delicious, as were the cocktails. J was reallly weirded out by the way everything looked, but she got to order off the kids menu and her pizza looked normal. P, age 10, counted as an adult and was a total champ about trying everything.
The show portion of the dinner was surprisingly good -- the original songs were better than I expected, and it again contributed to the overall feeling of being on another planet. Gaya really felt like a super star - she had great stage presence - and the background story (characters sneaking through the dining room, with help from other characters, in ways invisible to other characters but visible to us) was again clear and easy to follow.
We had bridge training scheduled for 830, but J was exhausted. We had been up early to get off the real ship, and it had been a long day after a week with some later than usual nights. So she just wanted to go to bed. We talked to guest services, and they switched J, D, and C to bridge training the next day. It seemed really easy to make such schedule requests. D had a thing he had to do for a bit on his computer anyway, so after a few post-dinner quests, he took J back to the room right when P and I headed to bridge training (C's husband had joined her, so they were off on their own enjoying the lounge).
Bridge training was also awesome, and the way the story intersected with what we were doing on the bridge was super cool. We later realized that if you watched on your room "window" you could tell when other groups were doing bridge training, since the plot progresses for everyone. I was really impressed with how they managed to have enough interactions that every guest got to have mechanically the same bridge training even as the plot moved forward. I only know details about what happened in ours and in the one D,C, J went to the next day, but they were identical in format but completely different in character staffing and plot points, of course.
After bridge training, P and I had some missions we had to do. But around 915 he also got extremely tired and wanted to go to bed. So I took him to the room, and then swapped so D could go to the final interactions, which he recorded on his phone for us to watch later, and then he tried to fulfill some quests from earlier, but everything pretty much shut down at 10 -- plus, the things he was supposed to do ("help character in engineering") related to things that had already happened in the plot of the story. While some missions are static or can happen other times, most of them have to happen within a specific window or they time out.
I realize this is both a lot of writing and not a lot of specifics...I'm happy to answer questions, of course. I no longer have access to our itinerary or datapad results (this is a piece of feedback -- I really wish there was a way to access a record of what we did in the accounts after leaving) but it's still recent enough that I remember most of it.
